The Doppelganger
by Bruteaous
Summary: After the defeat of Galaxia, the senshi decide to go on a camping trip to try and relax, but can a few ghost stories and some quality time together ward off the demons that haunt them?
1. Part 1: The Story

_**The Doppelganger**_

_**Note to the Story: **_I woke up one night after a weirder than weirder dream and decided to write this story and somehow it fits. Everyone enjoy. :]

_**My Challenge to all Readers: **_I never do these things, but I would like to pose this challenge to all of you fine fanfiction writers out there. Come up with a camping story, one that scares even you, written for any pairing or any fandom, and see how far you can take it. Now, on to the story! :]

**Disclaimer**: I do not own _Sailor Moon_ of any of its characters, though for my own purposes, I am borrowing them here for a little while.

* * *

_**Part 1: The Story**_

* * *

"You laugh at me like I'm joking, but I'm telling all of you the truth!"

Makoto kept her face stern as she brought the flashlight beneath her chin so that its beam of yellow light would illuminate her face from beneath, casting creepy shadows below her eyes and mouth as she maintained an expression of absolute seriousness, the laughter of her friends dying down around her as she continued with her story.

"Every night the lone samurai wanders the forests and valleys, searching for the man who took his head in battle. Sometimes, if you listen really carefully, you can hear him moving, his boots scraping against the ground as he hobbles on his one bad leg, deadheading towards Tokyo: ker-plop, ker-plop, ker-plop…"

Chibi-Usa and Usagi gasped in unison as both of them clung tighter to an arm of Mamoru's each one of them had claimed while Hotaru scooted unconsciously closer towards her parents until her back brushed up against Michiru's legs and startled her. They were all gathered around a campfire, in a circle, Minako cuddled up to Rei and Ami drinking from a thermos of hot chocolate and giving her significant other the room she needed for her overdramatic story telling.

The burning wood crackled, the sound louder than a gunshot as it disrupted the silence that had settled between all of them.

Then Makoto turned off the flashlight and set it face down in the dirt, stretching her arms above her head with a huge grin at the obvious affect that her story had had over the group.

Yeah, she was just that good.

"Well, that's my scary story of the evening. Who's next?" Makoto asked, slinging an arm around Ami's shoulders and drawing her closer.

"I know! What about you, Rei?" Usagi volunteered.

"What? No!" Rei growled, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

"Oh, come on, Rei!" Minako purred, hanging onto Rei's sweater clad arm and smiling up at her in that sickeningly sweet, do-this-for-your-girlfriend-and-I-will-repay-you-later-in-private, sort of way. "You're a miko, I'm sure you have plenty of stories of restless spirits trying to come back from the beyond and stuff."

Rei was immediately glad for the gloom of the night because she was sure had it been daylight, the blush that rose up in her face would have been visible to the whole world.

"I—uh—"

"One with ghosts!" Chibi-Usa piped up.

"I—"

"And monsters!" Minako added, grinning mischievously up at Rei as she began to sweat drop.

"Well—"

"I hope you tell a ghost story better than you build a campfire though." Usagi interrupted, "Who would have thought you'd be so bad at setting something on fire, Mars."

"Hey! You should talk! You're the one who knocked the original one over and caused it to die out in the first place!" Rei shouted back.

Usagi's eyes immediately began to tear up and she clung to Mamoru's arm tighter as Minako felt Rei stiffen at her side. Everyone knew what was coming.

"Why do you have to be so mean all of the time, Rei?" Their princess sniffed, pouting pitifully.

"Awww, she didn't mean it, Usagi." Minako came to the rescue with a smile Rei would have described as sly, "It's just a little past her bed time and you know how cranky she gets when she doesn't get her beauty sleep."

"Mina!" Rei hissed. "Speak for yourself!"

Makoto started laughing, but just managed to stifle it into a coughing fit before Haruka started in. The blond haired racer, however, didn't even try to hide her mirth and was only silenced when her lover's elbow made contact with her ribcage.

"Ow!" Haruka groaned, rubbing at her side like she really had been wounded and looking dejectedly to her lover for compensation. "Why do you always have to be so mean to me, Michiru?"

"Because some children need a little more disciplining than others." She replied, smirking up at the blond.

Then Michiru belittled her actions by leaning up and laying a lingering kiss on Haruka's lips as Usagi giggled at their antics.

Eventually, Mamoru was connived by the two excited blondes of the group and his future daughter, into being the next storyteller. His story was about a man who had been paralyzed as a youngster and had lived his entire life alone. Then one day he was shopping at a marketplace and to his horror, he saw a man who looked exactly like him and was dressed like he was, walking parallel to his wheelchair on the other side of the street like any other stranger.

Chibi-Usa gasped. "Was he really his double, Mamoru-chan?"

Mamoru nodded gravely.

Makoto turned to Ami. "There's a name for that. It's a German something…what do they call it?"

"A doppelganger." Ami whispered back, twining their fingers together as she leaned her forehead against Makoto's cheek.

"Oh, yeah, I remember now." Makoto replied, relishing in the contact.

"Then his double turned around and looked right at him!" Mamoru said, wheeling around dramatically, causing Chibi-Usa and Usagi to cling to one another unsteadily and almost fall off the log the three of them were occupying.

Hotaru felt a hand on her shoulder and startled, staring up into warm garnet eyes. Before she could say anything, her Setsuna-mama had settled a jacket around her shoulders. Apparently, she'd been shivering and she hadn't even noticed it.

The air around them was deathly still as Mamoru continued his story.

"The man thought he was losing his mind, of course, he had to be. How was it that he could be seeing himself walking beside him when he himself couldn't even walk anymore? It didn't make any sense. The man got more paranoid, not trusting his senses or even those closest to him and eventually he shut himself up inside of his house, refusing to come out ever again. No one saw him for years, until one day when his doctor made a house call only to find that the old man had died.

"He was buried and his house was boarded up and nothing was ever mentioned about the crazy old man again, until one night, a blacksmith was on his way home when he noticed a figure moving through the garden of the dead man's house. He shouted at the figure, but whoever it was didn't pay any attention to him and just kept walking. The blacksmith shouted again and again he was ignored so he went over to the garden gate to let himself in and found it padlocked…from the inside."

Mamoru paused for dramatic effect, everyone's attention now focused solely on him.

"Whispers went through the small town, about the person who was still living in the boarded up house on the edge of the village. A team of policemen were sent to investigate, but when they unboarded the door and went inside, they couldn't find anyone in the whole place. They even inspected the attic and the garden fence for signs of tampering, but the ten foot high iron enclosure was as sturdy as it had been when it had been built years before and the spikes on the top of every post would have made it impossible for someone to climb over it so the police were dumbfounded. In the end, though, they couldn't find the man the blacksmith had described to them so they reboarded up the door and left the place alone for good.

"Months went by and during that short amount of time, the blacksmith had become the laughingstock of the village. People laughed at him and called him crazy and mocked him for the apparition he'd seen, but he knew what he had seen. He knew it was real and so one night he went back to the house and again the same man was walking in the garden. The blacksmith went back several more nights and each time he went back to the house, he again saw the same man who seemed to have no knowledge that he was being watched or even cared strolling through the garden. Finally, encouraged by the many sightings, the blacksmith waited until after dark and got his wife out of bed and took her to the house, but there was no man. The wife began to think that her husband was losing his mind and one day he came home from work to find that she had taken their son and left him. The blacksmith was heartbroken.

"Determined to prove to the town and his wife that he wasn't crazy after all, he decided that he was going to kill the man. That way he would have a body to show to people and he could say he found it in the garden that way, so mad was it already that he didn't think they would pin the killing on him even if he was caught. So, the blacksmith waited until evening again and then took a sword his father had made and went to the dead man's house to wait. After midnight, the apparition appeared again, walking through the garden. Having come prepared, the blacksmith used a flat ended chisel and a rubber mallet to break off the padlock to the gate. Then he tossed down his tools and drew the sword.

"He shouted, but the figure ignored him so he ran at it."

Here Mamoru stopped and folded his hands in front of him, gauging the looks of anticipation on everyone's faces. After less than five seconds of silence, Usagi broke down and smacked him on the shoulder.

"Ouch, Usako!" Earth's future prince raised his hands to defend himself.

Chibi-usa stood up, "Mamoru-chan, you have to tell us what happened!"

Mamoru shrugged, lowering his hands, "That's just it, nothing happened. No one ever heard from or saw the blacksmith again. End of story."

"That's a horrible story!" Usagi criticized, gapping at him.

Mamoru shrugged again, "You wanted a story, I gave you a story."

"A good story, Mamoru, a story with a dramatic, bleeding heart ending, not no ending at all."

"But that story doesn't have an ending…"

"Well, make one up!" Chibi-usa and Usagi chanted at the same time.

"Fine!"

Mamoru took a deep breath and gave himself a few moments to think. Then finally he settled back comfortably again, ready to finish the story under the scrutiny of the entire group and his future queen and daughter.

"Um, well…"

The poor man twiddled his thumbs together as he tried desperately to come up with something in his head, anything that would be creative enough to please the crowd before he was thrown to the lions for bad story telling.

"Aha!" He shouted on the verge of an epiphany. "The blacksmith cut off the head of the dead man's double, showed it to the people of the town and became internationally famous for being the first man in history to prove, without a doubt, the existence of doppelgangers. From then on, the people of the village loved him so much, in fact, that he wasn't put in jail for the killing and his wife and son came back to him and he lived off of the publicity money for the rest of his life. The end. Better?"

"Better." Usagi said, leaning up and rewarding her flustered boyfriend with a kiss.

Chibi-usa made a gagging sound and the rest of the senshi laughed. Maybe this trip had been a good idea after all.

* * *

Soon though, all of the senshi were ghost storied out and everyone headed back to their respective tents for the night.

As the Outers were walking back to their own tents, Haruka stretched her hands behind her head and looked up at the stars glowing brilliantly against the black sky.

"You're awfully quiet tonight, Firefly." The blond commented, looking down at her daughter out of the corner of her eye.

Through the whole story telling session, the black haired girl hadn't said a word or made a sound save a gasp of surprise when she had backed up into Michiru.

"Not one for scary stories?" Setsuna asked, with a knowing smile.

Hotaru shook her head no and maintained her silence as they walked.

"That's all they are, just stories." Michiru soothed, rubbing the girl's back sympathetically as they stopped outside of Hotaru and Setsuna's tent. "Don't give them too much thought, alright?"

"She'll be fine, won't you, Firefly?" Haruka reassured standing beside them and ruffling the girl's hair affectionately.

Hotaru shook the hair out of her eyes and nodded bravely. Haruka seemed satisfied with that and leaned down to give her daughter a kiss on the cheek before starting off towards the tent she shared with Michiru, "Sweet dreams, Firefly."

"Goodnight, Papa."

Michiru remained behind a little longer, looking down into the quiet girl's deep amethyst eyes as Setsuna went into her tent and began rolling out their sleeping bags and getting her toothbrush and pajamas ready so she could start getting ready for sleep.

The whole point of this trip had been to give them all a place to go and relax for a little while.

After their last battle with Galaxia, they had all been more than just a little on edge and ready for a break from saving the Earth from evil neurotic women who came from outside and inside of their galaxy to conquer it. That was why when summer had finally rolled around again, they had all collaborated to take a trip somewhere and get away from Tokyo for a few days or so. Hence the camping trip. But everything wasn't back to normal yet.

Since the final battle and they had all been brought back to life…Hotaru hadn't been the same.

She still did everything her parents asked her to. She still seemed to love them and the rest of her extended family like she always had, but she talked less now and when she did it was usually either in a whisper or to Setsuna or Chibi-usa. The girl never argued either—not that she had been a difficult child before the fighting had taken place—but she used to have more of an opinion than she allowed herself these days.

Whatever the reasons, Hotaru had changed somewhat and it was worrying her parents.

Setsuna, Haruka, and Michiru had sat up late a couple of nights talking about it. Setsuna thought that it was the shock of dying that had caused the change in her. Even when she had died and been reborn as an infant, she had retained no memories of those times. Whereas now, she was completely aware of the before and the after without having to be told about it secondhand…as well as being completely aware of who it was who had killed her.

The senshi of Neptune took a deep breath and released it as she thought about it.

They had attacked their own daughter, their child.

Michiru had tried not to think about it as much as possible in the succeeding months after the battle. It had all been done in the name of sacrifice. Because they had had to do it, but in the end the means ceased to really matter as the bottom line remained the same: they had attacked their own daughter and killed her. She and Setsuna had understood in the end. They had understood what was going on and why it had needed to happen, they'd said they did, but it couldn't erase the sense of guilt that hung over what she and Haruka had done to them, their family.

Michiru grimaced inside as those eyes stared back up at her, confusion and a lack of real fear swimming in their depths. The soul that she could feel mirrored in those eyes was kind and dear and loving, but the coldness of one who could wield the power of death hung like a frost over it.

Michiru sighed, bending down to plant a kiss on Hotaru's forehead. Then straightening back up, she pushed the girl's hair back behind her ears and held her chin.

"If you need anything, you're Haruka-papa and Setsuna-mama and I are right here."

The little girl nodded. "Goodnight, Michiru-mama."

"Goodnight, sweetheart." Michiru said.

She paused a moment, staring with concern one more time into the child's eyes before stepping back from her and heading for her own tent.

Hotaru watched her mother go, eyes following her intently until the tent flap closed behind her. Once Michiru had disappeared, Hotaru set off in search of Setsuna and her pajamas.

* * *

_**End of Part 1**_


	2. Part 2: Night Fears

**_Part 2: Night Fears_**

* * *

Haruka lay sprawled comfortably out across her sleeping bag still dressed in her jeans and burgundy button down shirt from the day, her head propped up over her hands as she stared up at the tent ceiling. By the time Michiru entered their tent, she was already deep in thought and didn't notice her come in right away.

Michiru removed her sandals and stretched out beside her blond lover. When Haruka looked at her, she was smiling.

"What were you thinking about, love?" Michiru asked, propping her chin up in her hand and staring down at her with a curious expression on her face.

"You actually thought I was deep in thought. HA! How deceived you are!" Haruka quipped, but somehow it just didn't carry the same lighthearted energy most of her jokes did.

There was definitely something weighing on the blonde's mind and it was not lost on Michiru.

"Oh, the wheels were turning. I can always tell because the amount of dust that comes off of them when they move is enough to cloud any room in the house." Michiru returned without missing a beat, earning a slight look of indignation from Haruka. "So, what's really on your mind, love, or do I have to pry it out of you?"

The blonde feigned disgust now as the nymph hovering beside her wiggled her eyebrows suggestively, "Have you no sense of common decency, Michiru?"

Michiru shook her head no and Haruka tried not to think of ways to make this situation more enjoyable when they had an audience of listening ears all over the small camp ground. Instead, she met Michiru's eyes, a little timidly this time.

"Do you think everyone really has a double somewhere?" She ventured, uneasily.

Michiru blinked and repositioned herself, placing her arms on either side of Haruka, silently imploring her to continue.

"I mean…" Haruka started again, trying not to sound like the subject bothered her as much as it did. "My dad used to talk about how if a person sees their double it can bring them bad luck or even death. He told me, that his dad had told him on his deathbed that he saw himself standing across a field once, staring back at himself, and the day afterward he collapsed. He died a week later. Do you think it could really happen?"

"I don't think I'm going to leave you alone in the tent again, that's what I think." Michiru said with a smile, slapping Haruka's side playfully and getting a little chuckle out of her racer.

Then she leaned down and kissed Haruka deeply. When they parted Michiru pulled back just enough for their faces to be mere inches apart so their eyes could meet again. Her hair had fallen down, creating the illusion of aqua blue curtains hiding a world where only they and nothing else existed.

Michiru's amused smile was gone, replaced by a contemplative frown. "I honestly don't know the answer to that question, but if one exists, we'll figure it out together."

Haruka reached up and placed a hand on Michiru's cheek, and nodded before leaning up for another kiss.

* * *

"Are you feeling alright? You look pale." Minako commented offhandedly around her toothbrush and a mouthful of toothpaste.

"I feel fine." Rei defended herself, wiping her face off with a towel she'd brought as they washed up for bed in the campsite's community restrooms. "And I do not look pale."

Minako bent over to spit into one of the sinks, "Pasty then, no pun intended."

Rei finished wiping around her eyes and then stared into the mirror at the dark raccoon circles beneath them and her light skinned demeanor.

_I look just like her…before she got sick and…and…._

Before Rei could wallow anymore in her own depressing musings, a pair of warm arms wrapped around her middle and Minako's chin settled on her shoulder. She had washed her mouth out and put away her toothbrush and was leaning against Rei's back, watching her watch them.

Never one for awkward silences, Minako hummed and leaned the side of her head against Rei's more comfortably as she smirked at their joined reflections.

"You know what, Rei?"

"What?" Rei asked with some trepidation.

"We make a damn sexy pair, mhmm, yes we do."

And Rei couldn't help it, she laughed out loud.

* * *

"But I want to sleep next to Mamoru-chan!"

"Well, tough luck! I'm his girlfriend and I'm going to sleep next to him"

Usagi emphasized her point as she pushed Chibi-usa's sleeping bag out of the way and replaced it with her own as the little girl stood and placed her hands on her pajama clad hips.

"Why would Mamoru want to sleep next to you anyway, you're just a lot of dead weight. You'd probably squish him." Usagi added just to be spiteful.

"You're one to talk!"

"Brat!"

"Glutton!"

"Girls, GIRLS!"

Chibi-usa's hand stopped its downward motion from where it had been yanking in fistfuls of Usagi's blonde pigtails, and Usagi's hand landed on the floor of the tent instead of over the pink haired girl's mouth where it had been intended to go.

Both looked up at where Mamoru stood, back from changing into his pajamas, and sweat dropped as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"She started it!" they both chorused as they scrambled away from each other and pointed their fingers in accusation.

Then they stared at one another, realizing that they'd just said the same thing at the same time.

"No, you started it!"

"Mamoru-chan, she's copying me!"

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

"GIRLS, please! I think I am going to sleep outside tonight anyway."

"WHAT?"

Mamoru ducked into the tent quickly and grabbed his pillow and sleeping bag before retreating back towards the relative safety of the tent flap.

"Yeah, you can't beat mother nature at her best. It's really a beautiful night out here." He said as he stretched and threw his sleeping bag outside the tent.

"Mamoru, let me sleep out there with you, we could enjoy the beautiful night togeth—" Usagi started, but she wasn't given the chance to finish.

"No, I want to sleep next to Mamoru-chan—"

"Look kid, I really think you've got the unrealistic expectations here—"

"Ladies."

They both turned again to look at Mamoru.

"I think I better spend the night out here alone. Usagi, you haven't seen Chibi-usa for a while. You should both take this time to talk and get to know each other better. You know, bond?" He tried.

When both his future wife and child just stared back at him blankly, he rolled his eyes and waved them goodnight before zipping the tent flap shut and closing them inside.

* * *

Hotaru had rolled out her sleeping bag and claimed a corner of the tent as her own. She had dressed herself in a pair of lavender pajamas when her Setsuna-mama had set out for the bathrooms to change and get ready for bed and was laying on her stomach staring at the wildly gesturing image in her communicator.

"..and then Usagi tells me that I have unrealistic expectations and Mamoru-chan decides that he wants to sleep outside to get away from us so now I'm stuck in the tent with Usagi who is going to make it impossible to get any sleep because she snores like a train passing through downtown Tokyo."

"This is your fault too, you know!" came an outraged voice from somewhere off screen.

Chibi-usa turned around and Hotaru could see the side of her princess' face as she stuck her tongue out in the direction of her future mother.

The dark haired girl grinned.

At least some things hadn't changed with everything that had happened to them.

"I'm sorry, Chibi-usa. I'd let you stay with us, but I'm not sure how Setsuna-mama would feel about having to give up more space to a third person. We're cramped in here already." She said leaning her head on her chin.

Chibi-usa sighed. "It's not your fault, Hotaru. I'll probably be able to catch up on the sleep I'll be losing on the ride home tomorrow, that is if someone doesn't babble on and on about the wedding dress she saw in _Tokyo Bride_."

"That's it! When you get married, you are wearing a burlap sack!"

Chibi-usa wrinkled up her nose and turned in Usagi's direction again. "What's that?"

"It's a really scratchy material." Hotaru supplied, "Like the type of bags rice comes in."

"Hmp. No way." Chibi-usa sniffed.

"You'll have to do it though, because I'll be the queen and no one can disobey a direct order from a queen."

"I can because I'll be queen one day so there!" Chibi-usa punctuated her point by sticking her tongue out again for good measure.

Hotaru released a deep breath, not as relaxed by the humor of the situation as she would have liked to be.

"I'm really tired, Chibi-usa, I think I'm going to go to sleep."

Chibi-usa gave her an odd look through the view screen, but before she could say anything, Usagi beat her to it.

"Goodnight, Hotaru! Sleep well and tell Setsuna goodnight for us too!"

Hotaru nodded, but the gesture was lost on the others as the communicator clattered to the ground and Chibi-usa tackled Usagi. Hotaru couldn't see anything, but she could hear the sounds of scuffling in the background.

"She's my friend, Usagi!"

"I can't believe I got stuck in this tent with yo—umph!"

"Take that!"

"Ouch! Get off!"

Hotaru sighed and rubbed her head as she closed her communicator on the other two. Maybe it wasn't so good when some things stayed the same instead of changing.

_Why are you doing this? _

_You know why._

Hotaru closed her eyes on the voices in her head, only to find that images had joined them. Images, sounds, smells, feelings. All of the very real sensory remembrances were back. The feel of the still air as she and Pluto stood face to face with Uranus and Neptune. The feel of the cold chill that had run down her spine. The smell of the stillness between them that had sucked all of the air out of her lungs like a room full of smoke. The sound of the doors opening as they began to fade away. The numbness in her Papa's eyes as she attacked her…

The tent flap was unzipped and a red pajama clad Setsuna stepped in. She set her toiletries bag down in one corner and padded across the tent to plop rather unceremoniously down onto her own sleeping bag.

"Chibi-usa and Usagi say goodnight."

Setsuna arched an eyebrow in a curious expression.

"I was talking to Chibi-usa on my communicator and Usagi was with her."

Setsuna nodded and stretched her arms above her head and groaned at the extra effort it took. She may be ageless, but her muscles sure weren't. When she looked down Hotaru was smiling, trying to suppress her giggles.

"And what, pray tell, is so funny?"

"You are, Setsuna-mama." Hotaru admitted, still smiling, "You and your stiff muscles and creaky bones."

Setsuna's indulgent smile immediately faded to be replaced with a serious expression.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

Hotaru's smile died and she fell back onto her blankets. "Maybe later."

Setsuna watched as her daughter ducked into her sleeping bag and turned her back to her as she snuggled into it more comfortably. All the while, Hotaru could feel the intensity of garnet eyes boring into her head, but she would not, could not turn to face their scrutiny.

* * *

_**End of Part 2**_


	3. Part 3: Ran for Shelter

_**Part 3: Ran for Shelter**_

* * *

It was late. There was a chill to the night air in the camp and there were clouds in the sky hiding the stars and the moon from view. Haruka rolled over, Michiru shifting beside her unconsciously.

The blonde sat up and threw the lip of the sleeping bag to the side.

She had to pee. Bad.

Haruka stood up and ducked out of their tent as quietly and yet, quickly as possible, headed in the direction of the public bathrooms.

She emerged from one of the cleaner looking stalls, pulling the waistband of her gold silk boxers the last few inches to her hips and moved over to the sinks, picked one, and turned on the faucet. The blonde lowered her hands into the clear spray of water, grimacing at first at how cold it was and reached for the soap. When she had finally finished and moved to turn the faucet off, her hand hovered over the knob. Haruka stopped and stood up straighter in front of the mirror, staring at her sleep tousled reflection in the dusty unkempt glass. She stood there for a minute or so in complete silence, unmoving, looking for something.

Something she couldn't name. Something that shouldn't have mattered, but did.

She looked from her reflection to her hands, now placed on either side of the sink, their damp paleness standing out against the hard-lined swirls of the cheap linoleum countertop. One of them involuntarily twitched and she readjusted her attention to just the one. She felt her stomach sink a little and her eyes traveled slowly from that hand back up to her reflection. Dark circles rimmed the teal eyes staring back at her.

Haruka closed her eyes and hung her head, resting her neck. She was still tired and should probably go back to sleep. They had a long day ahead of them tomorrow.

The water was still running. She hadn't moved to turn it off yet and had to before she could leave.

Haruka sniffed and opened her eyes, but it wasn't her staring back at herself for the mirror. It was the face of an old man, his skin powdry and pale and growing more and more wrinkled by the second, as peels of skin frayed off of the cheeks as from a snake's back…And peaking out from the ancient face were her eyes.

Haruka yelled and scrambled backwards until she was against the back wall, with the mirror and the thing a good distance away from her now. She stared back into the glass, but it was only her now. The old face was gone. Haruka took a shaky breath and braced herself against the wall.

She needed to get out of here. The tall racer turned towards the door, but didn't look fast enough to see the pipe jutting out from the wall up into the ceiling.

The world looked quite a bit different when someone was falling down than standing up. People wouldn't think there would be such a difference, but there was. When someone got up, the world grew with them. When someone was falling, the world was steadily shrinking. Shrinking, and shrinking, and shrinking until it was—literally—no more.

It was all a matter of perspective, Haruka found, as she sank to the floor and the world got dim and small all at once.

* * *

_**End of Part 3**_


	4. Part 4: It's Not Real

**_Part 4: It's Not Real_**

* * *

"How can a girl whose initials are A.M. hate mornings so much?"

"Purely a—*yawn*—coincidence, Reiko."

"So, it wasn't fate that caused your parents to name you after the one thing you hate greeting more than anything else on Earth?"

"Mmm…Nope."

Rei laid back onto her pillow as Minako snuggled down into her side of their shared sleeping bag. It was still very early. The sun had yet to really rise and the telling lightening of the sky cast dim uneven shadows across the tall grasses and hidden profiles of trees. Even one side of their tent was semi-illuminated.

Around 5am Rei had decided that she couldn't and didn't want to go back to sleep and had "insisted" on waking Minako up with her. At the time, Minako hadn't had much reason to complain, but with it now being just a little after 6:30 am, she was beginning to cherish the idea of sleep once again. Rei looked over at her in the semi-darkness of their tent. Minako was on her side snuggled into the wide expanse of fluffy covers between them, one of Rei's arms held captive around her middle.

Rei continued to stare at the blonde, watching her breathe peacefully.

"I love you."

Minako opened one eye first, then the next and found the pair of amethyst eyes that were looking into hers.

"I love you too, Rei."

Minako scooted closer to Rei and wrapped her arms around her so that their faces were mere inches apart. Rei relished the contact and the warm fuzzy feeling that rose up in her chest alongside another very familiar, yet not so appreciated emotion: fear.

She closed her eyes as she felt one of the blonde's hands begin to stroke her back.

"Rei, look at me."

Rei took a deep breath and it came out stilted. Hesitantly, her eyes opened and met those of her girlfriend's.

"Nothing is going to happen."

Rei swallowed.

"…But she's still out there, Mina."

"But she's not going to come after us."

Rei reached out and pulled Minako closer to her, needing to feel her. "How do you know?"

"Usagi defeated her. She's not coming back. It's over."

Rei nodded and leaned her forehead against Minako's.

The uncharacteristic show of weakness had her torn in two places. On one hand, she couldn't help it. They'd all seen more death and disturbing things than most people did in a lifetime of living and yet because they were senshi, they were all expected to go on living as if none of it had affected them.

On the other hand, Rei knew that she was strong. Death had been greedy with her and had coveted Rei's attention from the youngest of ages. In taking her mother, Death had made sure that Rei would never be able to forget it. And Fate, Death's hand and hand partner in crime, had given her, her mother's eyes, her cheekbones, and her hair so that every time Rei looked into a mirror, she was forced to remember just what it was she had lost.

Her grandmother used to say that all gifts given had to come with a measure of loss. After her mother's death, Rei's grandfather had held her and said that she was special and that all things happened for a reason, but all of the pretty words and catchy phrases in the world couldn't help a child understand why the cruelties of life had to happen the way they did. And they certainly hadn't helped her understand any of it.

Even now, laying in her girlfriend's arms, Rei felt like that scared, confused, and angry child she had been. She felt small and fearful. Powerless and lost. Fate and Death, together, had made her an orphan. She no longer had any more parents to lose, but what about her other family? What about grandpa? What about the other senshi and above all, what about her Mina? What if they were taken from her again?

Part of her rebelled at the thought. Part of her said that she wouldn't let that happen, she'd die again before she'd let anyone take them away from her. But the other part of her knew that there was nothing she could do. Death and Fate were powerful forces in the universe. If for any reason they decided to rob her of those she so loved, she would be powerless to stop them like she had been before.

Rei pulled back from Mina, enough to see her face and look into her eyes. They were less alert now, but still entirely focused on Rei across from her.

"I can't lose you again."

Minako blinked and her drowsy expression softened.

"Rei…"

"No, Mina, I just can't."

Rei was shaking her head, a haunted expression in her eyes accompanied by another emotion Minako couldn't quite decipher. Determination maybe? Or maybe fear?

"I wouldn't survive without you. I know it's cliché to say that, but…it's true, I won't. If I ever have to lose you or the others again, I won't even try. It wouldn't be worth it."

It wasn't determination. It wasn't fear. It was defeat.

"Rei…"

Minako moved to roll them over so that she was on top of Rei, staring down at her, holding her.

"This isn't you, it's fear speaking, but you don't have anything to be afraid of anymore. These things that haunt you, they're not real."

"Mina—"

Minako put a finger against Rei's lips to quiet her.

"They're not real, Rei." She repeated firmly, "It's just fear, but you don't have to be afraid anymore. None of us do, it's over."

"But—"

"Shhh, no more talking."

Minako leaned down and pressed her lips to Rei's. After a few kisses, she felt Rei begin to relax beneath her and took advantage of the feeling to relax herself, as well. In that moment, nothing else existed—not their duty, not the princess, not the future, not their fellow senshi, not the world—just the two of them, together.

* * *

Makoto emerged from the tent she shared with Ami, buttoning the flap closed behind her as discretely as she could. The blunette needed as much sleep as it would be possible for her to get before they had to leave and return to their normal, hectic lives.

Makoto shivered as she zipped up her hoodie.

It was a chilly morning. The type where eating something hot, like rice cakes in Butamame—even though pork and bean soup wasn't much of a breakfast food—was a comfort to the body as well as the soul. Makoto's teeth started to chatter as she neared the common buildings where the bathrooms and showers were.

It really was cold and if possible, it might even have just gotten a little bit colder.

Makoto pulled her toothbrush out of its holder and ducked into the girls' bathroom.

She hadn't slept much during the night. Neither had Ami. The blue haired genius had begun to have nightmares. Sometimes they were so bad that she thrashed around. Sometimes she'd just murmur in her sleep and wake up sweating. Sometimes she'd wake up screaming. It had severely reduced the quality of rest Ami was getting at night, as well as reducing the amount of sleep Makoto got when Ami stayed the night at her apartment or whenever she slept over at Ami's house. She couldn't blame the girl though.

Dying wasn't a pleasant experience, and remembering it even less so. All of them were traumatized in some way or another by what they'd been through, but it was going to get better and when it did they could all be at peace again. Mentally, emotionally, and physically. It was going to happen, Makoto knew it. After all, she had found peace. It had taken years after her parents' death, but she had finally found it in the arms of a beautiful blue eyed girl and a group of loyal friends…

…What was this?

"Haruka?"

Makoto knelt down on the bathroom floor where Haruka lay sprawled out and unmoving.

"This isn't good…Haruka? Haruka, wake up!"

Makoto shook the tall blonde's shoulder, getting her to stir. There was a nasty bump on one of her temples and a little bit of blood near the hairline there, but other than that, Haruka appeared fine. The blonde opened her eyes and took in her surroundings. As the world began to come into focus, she was more than a little surprised to see a worried looking Makoto hovering over her.

"Makoto?"

Haruka made to sit up, but when the world began to spin again, she found out that was a really, really bad idea.

"Makoto, where am I?"

Uh oh, bad sign, "You're in the bathroom of the Hashiba Campsite. Do you know who you are?"

Haruka gave her as incredulous a look as she felt like managing.

"I didn't hit my head that hard. Oh…god…" Haruka made another earnest attempt to sit up, slower this time, and successfully made it. "My head feels like someone clubbed it with a wrench or something."

Makoto stood up to give the blonde room to breathe. She looked around, green eyes finally settling upon a very inconveniently placed piece of pluming jutting out from the wall across from them. It was far enough from the narrow entrance way to not cause anyone who was paying attention to it any trouble, but still, it was poorly placed.

"Yup, that'll do it."

Haruka looked over to where Makoto was running her fingertips over the edge of the miserable pipe that had clubbed her good.

"You must not have been paying that much attention. It's easy enough to avoid if you just walk around it."

"I didn't even see it." Haruka said, standing slowly, stumbling a couple feet, but mostly managing to keep her balance.

"How much have you had to drink?" Makoto quipped.

"I haven't been drinking. I just…saw something."

"What did you see?"

Haruka took on an odd grin, "Mamoru-chan's doppelganger…just a few years in the future that's all."

Makoto narrowed her eyes, "That's creepy."

"Yeah." Haruka said, a far away look in her eyes, "It was."

_**

* * *

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**_End of Story_**


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